The present invention relates, on the one hand, to a method of operating an electrically driven vehicle which is driven by an electric motor fed by vehicle-borne batteries and, on the other hand, to a vehicle of this kind. Vehicles of this type are known in which the effect supplied to the motor is varied by means of resistors and/or gear boxes which means that an important part of the available battery energy is lost in the form of transmission losses in the gear box and in form of heat energy developed in the resistors.
In controlling the speed of the vehicle it is also known to make use of thyristor means with the aid of which the power supply to the motor is controlled. These thyristor means form part of complicated and very expensive control circuits which, for example, sense the load of the vehicle and control the power supply to the driving motor in dependence on the sensed load, the cost of such thyristor means and appertaining control circuits thus becoming prohibitively high. While by such measures the speed control system is improved and thereby also to a certain extent the efficiency, battery energy is still used in the gear box and/or resistors.